


How to Start the Beginning of the End

by allthaticanbe



Category: No Fandoms
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 15:30:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13484448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthaticanbe/pseuds/allthaticanbe
Summary: It hasn't been long at all for him. There's so much for him to do. Why should he go now?





	How to Start the Beginning of the End

It was a nice enough day out. Not very sunny, but it was warm for Oregon standards. There was ice on the road, sure, but the trees were getting green again, and there were birds too, and the occasional blue peek of sky...  
There were also cars with bad wheels. There were hungover college kids coming back from their college parties, and there were men begging for food on the street.  
There were accidents.  
He had worn his favorite sneakers when he was evicted, blue and black with the Nike stripe. He had stocked up two cans of beans and a loaf of bread. He had forty-three dollars.  
He was the oldest kid to ever go broke in his small and cold town, and the youngest geezer to get run over in the same day.  
His cans went flying, his money was crumpled in his fist, and the unforgiving ice was stained red. The poor kid in the car started crying. The other car on the street stopped, a passerby the only other witness to the man's end. A figure crossing the street, the white car approaching out of the mist, and the startling screech of tires. That was all that happened, just noise and pain and nothing.  
He woke up in the woods.  
Not like some national park, actual forest, with vibrant leaves and grass and sunlight, birds and a deer. There was a deer right in front of him.  
Someone was sitting next to him, a stranger wearing a black hoodie. He couldn't see their face but he could see their thin hand resting on the log under him. They didn't fidget. The stranger sat completely still, almost not breathing. They weren't breathing.  
The person didn't turn towards them, but they sighed, and the trees sighed with them.  
"Despite what they may think, it never gets any easier."  
He furrowed his brow in confusion. "What doesn't?"  
"C'mon," the stranger chided with a quiet voice. "surely you know what happened. You're dead. You were killed by a 2001 Honda Chevy driven by Adam Gerrish, the local college-student drunk. The impact knocked you on the pavement, and your skull was cracked badly. You were in a coma for two days, but it was saveable. You would have been brain-dead anyways."  
The man went quiet. "Oh." He said in a crushed voice. "But I didn't deserve it."  
"God, does anyone?" The person said with exasperation. "Look, you're dead, and that is it. I can't save you, I'm sorry, but you're dead. That's that."  
"Geez, you don't have to be like that." He muttered. "I get it. Where am I going then, after this?"  
"Nowhere." They said wistfully. "This is it. You wanted a forest, you got a forest. If you want a home, you'll get a home. If you want to live again, that could happen too."  
"How? This isn't Heaven, I don't see God anywhere. I wasn't a serial killer or anything, but I don't deserve this. I didn't live my life well enough to get this."  
The figure turned their head, and he saw for the first time a smooth white skull with a ghost-like skin. They had a face, the face of his former neighbour, his old boyfriend, his mother that died four years earlier...  
"Why should a crumbly old man decide where you spend your afterlife? That's kind of messed up, don't you think?"  
"You literally just decided where I ended up." He responded with annoyance.  
They laughed, the faint skin almost disappearing around their mouth. "I guess you're right. But you weren't the worst. You were nice, you paid your taxes, all that shit...you valued your life. You made something out of it. Even though you hated life and couldn't bear the pain, you did your best. Those people are the hardest to take away, because they fought so hard for it."  
The man looked down at the grass, at the trees, and the deer that was standing quietly in the sunlight. "There are worse places to go, I guess."  
Death smiled with their ghostly lips. "That's the spirit. Well, you're the spirit."  
"I didn't know you had a funny bone." He teased.  
"Jesus Christ, do you know how many times I've heard that?" They groaned good-naturedly. "It's always jokes that get you into the best places, just so you know. You're in a good place already, but if you weren't I'd get you an upgrade."  
"Maybe install a McDonalds and we'll call it even." The man smirked. "Thank you, seriously. I knew I would die one day, obviously, but I didn't want to be lonely. Thank you for staying with me."  
"Time is irrelevant," Death said passively. "I can stay with you forever, until your next life, or whatever path you take. However, I should get going. Call me back when you're ready."  
They raised a hand, now made of human flesh. The deer came toward them, almost bounding across the clearing, and when the hand connected with the soft fur, the clearing was empty.

**Author's Note:**

> I was bored in class.


End file.
